Megacity Tips from Europe’s Highest Town as Davos Debates Future

Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri said, “If you want to have a modern city you need to adapt and evolve.” Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- From the highest town in Europe came
advice for those building cities around the globe.

The Swiss ski resort of Davos, which sits about 1,500
meters above sea level, last week played host to the World
Economic Forum’s annual meeting. Forming part of the agenda: the
costs and benefits of accelerating urbanization.

The United Nations calculates the number of megacities with
populations of more than 15 million will jump to 35 by 2025 from
22 in 2011. That transition throws up challenges to economies,
budgets, infrastructure, the environment and social fabrics,
which several panels at the conference sought to address.

“If you want to have a modern city you need to adapt and
evolve,” Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri said in an interview
in Davos. “Every week cities receive hundreds of citizens that
come to look for a job or new experiences or simply to have fun
and they all demand quality services.”

Among the statistics presented to highlight the rise of
city-dwelling: the number of people living in cities will nearly
double to 6.4 billion by 2050. If Tokyo were a country it would
be the 31st largest in a decade’s time, while China is seeking
to urbanize 250 million rural residents.

Crucible

“From global warming to homelessness, from debt crisis to
energy shortages, from insufficient water, name any problem that
concerns humanity and the city is the crucible where you will
find it bubbling away,” said Geoffrey West, a physicist and
distinguished professor at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico.
“But cities also represent our best hope for finding solutions
to these enormous challenges since they are the cauldrons of
innovation, ideas and wealth.”

The importance of planning was voiced by Parks Tau, the
mayor of Johannesburg, whose “Joburg 2040 GDS” initiative was
started after consultations with the city’s inhabitants to
modernize their hometown after the damage done by Apartheid.

“There has to be a long-term vision,” Tau said. “Of
course, you can change along the way, but it’s important to have
a distinct vision of where a city is going.”

From India, which has three cities with populations topping
17 million, Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath said
governments should focus on encouraging suburbs. “You see high
pressure urbanization, so the advice I have is to consider
suburbanization more,” he said.

Youth Lure

Compatriot Tejprett S. Chopra, the former head of General
Electric Co. in India, said cities need to focus especially on
the young.

“If you can’t provide for them, you lose talent and can’t
fulfil the needs of the people,” he said.

Architect Stephen Cairns of the Future Cities Laboratory in
Singapore said governments should be wary of importing
blueprints from abroad which had become outmoded and
inefficient, such as high-rise apartments.

“The vertical city seems to become the model we’re veering
toward,” he said. “We can develop grassroots urbanization that
doesn’t rely on outdated models.”

Success can have costs too. London Mayor Boris Johnson said
the biggest issue confronting the U.K. capital is a shortage of
housing for local residents as overseas buyers drive up property
prices. Homes prices in London jumped 9.1 percent last year,
Hometrack Ltd. said on Dec. 30.

“We’re seeing huge increases in property values because of
international investors wanting to buy this new asset class,”
Johnson told Bloomberg Television. “We’re building huge numbers
of affordable homes and that’s the biggest issue for a city like
London.”

Prime Location

A city that came in for repeated praise was Singapore. As
well as enjoying a prime geographical location in Asia, it
serves as hub for regional tourism, investment and trade thanks
to low taxes, a large ex-pat community, minimal trade barriers
and a strong rule of law. That has helped to diversify its
economy from serving as a home to outsourced foreign companies
toward high-wage financial services and top-end manufacturing,
said Razeen Sally, a visiting Associate Professor at Lee Kuan
Yew School of Public Policy.

“There is plenty one can learn from a place like
Singapore,” said Sally.